Recipe: Gourmet Hash?

Inspired by our recent trip to Sanford, this dish was cooked on the fly.

The original dish was a seared sturgeon with a brunoise of new potatoes, blanched spinach, fried capers and a caper vinaigrette. It was the third course in their 7-course tasting menu. I was amazed at how teeny-tiny the potato was cut; oh and the fried capers were out of this world.

On the Saturday evening of our anniversary weekend (4th), we found ourselves still full from a day of culinary adventures. I had marinated some chicken souvlaki and had Spanish green beans ready to be sautéed when we decided that we didn't want to eat it that evening. I already had brunoised the potato since I wanted to achieve that extremely small dice and do something with it. I looked through the fridge and found that we had prosciutto from our earlier Trader Joe's trip, a shallot and some fresh basil.

What resulted was surprising and wonderful.

Gourmet Hash

1 Idaho potato, brunoised
1 shallot, brunoised
2 slices prosciutto, julienned
1 clove garlic, minced
3 leaves basil, chiffonaded
2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper to taste (be careful, prosciutto is quite salty already)

Blanch the potatoes in boiling water for about 1-2 minutes or until done.

In a sauté pan, heat oil. Add shallot and garlic. Cook until translucent. Add potato and gently sauté. Add prosciutto. Turn off heat and add basil. Season to taste.

It would go very well with some scrambled eggs or eggs over easy.

Enjoy!

Salmon Souvlaki with Greek Yogurt Dipping Sauce

Wild sockeye salmon has a wonderful flavor and texture – much more flavorful with a denser texture than the pale, fairly tasteless farm-raised salmon.

I like to prepare salmon simply – using a few ingredients to highlight the vibrant flavor of the fish without detracting from its essence.

For the salmon marinade:

2 1/3lb portions of sockeye salmon
2 TBSPs extra virgin olive oil
2 tsps red wine vinegar
2 tsps lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried thyme or 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1/4 tsp dried oregano or 2 springs of fresh oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced

Mix together and marinate for about 20 minutes

For the dipping sauce, mixed together:

1 7oz container Full Fat (yes, full fat – it's that much better) Greek yogurt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 TBSPS fresh mint, chiffonade
1 TBSP lemon juice

To cook the salmon, in a sauté pan, heat about 1 TBSP olive oil. Lay salmon on hot oil and cook to your desired doneness.

Enjoy!